U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty II is announcing a new cooperative effort aimed at addressing prescription drug diversion and a recent spate of pharmacy robberies.

The Maine federal prosecutor’s office has scheduled a press conference set for Wednesday to announce details of the effort.

The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency has identified prescription drug diversion, the illegal sale and misuse of prescription medicine, as the state’s most serious drug problem. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration this year organized a nationwide drug collection effort to help dispose of medicine that is no longer needed, noting that one of the primary sources of diverted medicines is people’s home medicine cabinets.

Several local police agencies have responded in recent weeks to pharmacy holdups, a way to obtain prescription medications that has become a last resort solution for people who are addicted, particularly to prescription painkillers.

Specifics of the joint federal-state investigative and prosecutorial efforts have not been announced.